Mechanical handling of billets and the like



Nov. 29, 1932. E. J. QUINN 1,889,039

BIEJCIIMHIGAL HANDLING OF BILLETS AND THE LIKE Filed Nov. 14. 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet l Snvenc on, Edurard I Quin 71,.

NEW? 2%, E9 32 QUINN 1,889,039

MECHANICAL HANDLING OF BILLETS AND THE LIKE Filed Nov. 14. 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 U x Q a 3 m; Q 9* w H U R M 6 Q 22 N U N N g Q H I) N f H M Q5 g m f 2 km I N Snvenfton dw'ard. JTQu'Lnn Nov. 29, 1932 E, J. QUINN 1,889,039

MECHANICAL HANDLING OF BILLETS AND THE LIKE Filed Nov. 14. 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 SmrentoR Edward J: Quinn RTLoRneg Patented Nov. 29, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE EDWARD J. QUINN, 0F WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO MORGAN CONSTRUC- TION COMPANY, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSA- CHUSETTS MECHANICAL HANDLING OF BILLETS AND THE LIKE Application filed November 14, 1930. Serial No. 495,706.

This invention relates to the mechanical handling of metal billets or similar objects or materials. 7

In rolling mill practice, for example, it is oftentimes necessary to subject partially-reduced billets or bars to reheating; for this purpose, a considerable number of the'billets or bars, bunched together for handling purposes, may be deposited in a more or less disordered mass or pile upon a support or bed, whereon the pile or mass must be unscrambled and disintegrated, so that the individual billets may be forwarded in an orderly manner, one by one, to the charging devices of the reheating furnace.

Heretofore, this unscrambling operation, i. e., the separation of successive individual billets or bars from the disordered assembly or pile, has been performed almost entirely by hand,the operation requiring several laborers, armed with tongs, with which to seize and draw out each billet or bar from the mass or pile and then drag it over the supporting table or bed into proper position for delivery broadside to the furnace-charging devices. This manual disintegration of such a mass or pile of bars or billets is a tedious and time-consuming operation, and in addition, it is extremely hazardous for the laborers engaged therein.

According to the present invention, the disintegration or unscrambling of the disordered pile or mass of pieces is accomplished entirely in the absence of manual intervention. Said mass or pile, as deposited on a set. of specially-constructed skids that are operative to procure its step by-step broadside movement, is brought by said movement under the influence of certain movable members which function, at the will of an opera tor, to topple the mass or a portion thereof, whereby to inaugurate its disintegration, or if desired, by movement in the other direction, serve as registering stops to; square up and aline the pieces, substantially at right angles to the direction of their broadside movement by the skids. The latter are formed with downhill shoulders in the vicin ity of said movable members, whereby to promote the separation of pieces from the mass,

and'these and subsequent similar shoulder portions of said skids are adapted to be brought into action by reversal of the broadside movement to effect any necessary further straightening or squaring up of the pieces, or correction of any tendency for them to override one another. Means are also provided for withholding any part of the deposit-ed massof pieces from the broadsiding action of the skids, whereby any bars or pieces initially extricated from the mass can be gotten out of the way before further disintegration of the mass is proceeded with.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrative of the apparatus and mode of operation of the invention,-

' Fig. 1 is a perspective view.

Fig. 2 is a similar view, showing the billets deposited on the apparatus.

Figs. 3 and 4 are perspective views, illustrating the action of the squaring and toppling members.

Figs. 5 and 6 are fragmentary perspective views, illustrating the corrective action of the skids.

Fig. 7 is a side elevation.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in the different figures.

As shown in the drawings, the apparatus provides a plurality of parallel stationary supporting skids 1, 1, and in alternating relation thereto, a plurality of parallel movable skids 2, 2, with the lower or discharge ends of both sets of skids in proximity to a suitable trough 3, running crosswise of saidskids, and adapted to receive singly each bar or billet discharged broadside from said skids, so that said bar or billet may be charged, by endwise movement in said trough, to a reheating furnace or the like, not shown. At their ends remote from trough 3, the sets of skids 1, 1 and 2, 2 are adapted to have deposited thereon by a crane, or other suitable carrier, not shown, a multiplicity of billets or bars in massed or bunched formation, as shown in Fig. 2; although this mass as a whole may be deposited in substantially parallel relation to the trough 3, it is inevitable that its component parts, i. e., the individual bars or billets themselves will not only occupy a great variety of different angular positions, but

will present collectively a disordered and disarranged condition, being piled up one upon the other in haphazard and crossed fashion and, in some cases, being warped or curved to a considerable degree.

The several movable skids 2, 2 are slidably supported at their receiving ends upon a common transverse bar 4; near their delivery ends, said skids 2, 2 have alined bearing apertures 5, 5 for the. reception of identical eccentric portions 6, 6, all provided by a'common transverse operating shaft 7 the latter being suitably connected to a reversible driving motor 8, whose control, for starting, stopping and reversing, is preferably located in an operators pulpit 9. By each revolution of the shaft 7, every point on the upper supporting surfaces of the skids 2, 2 describes a circular or elliptical path, partly above and partly below the corresponding surfaces of the stationary skids 1, 1; in consequence of this, any material lying across the sets of skids '1, 1 and 2, 2 is, at each revolution of shaft 7, raised above the supporting level and then lowered back to said level, undergoing in this process a lateral translation in one direction or the other, depending upon the direction of rotation of said shaft 7. Thus, by continuous rotation of the shaft 7 in one direction, a stepby-step broadside movement of the material supported on the sets of skids 1, 1 and 2, 2 may be secured.

The supporting and lifting surfaces of the sets of skids 1, 1 and 2, 2 occupy a relatively high level a at the receiving end of the apparatus, where the mass of billets or bars is deposited; at the discharge end of the apparatus, alongside the trough 3, these surfaces occupy a lower level Z); and preferably, between the upper and lower levels a and b, there is an intermediate level 0. Cm each skid, the drop of level a to level 0 is provided by a downwardly inclined slightly concave portion 10, and a similar portion 11 on each skid provides the drop between the level 0 and the discharge level I).

For operation on the mass of billets deposited on the receiving level a, the inventlon provides a set of alined-movable members or fingers 12, 12, located in the spaces between the parallel supporting and lifting skids 1, 1 and 2, 2 and mounted on a transverse shaft 13, which is suitably connected to a reversible electric motor 14. The control for the motor 14, to start, stop and reverse the same, is preferably located in the operators pulpit 9, adjacent the control of the other motor 8. The shaft 13 also carries a plurality of alined cams 15, 15, each of which underlies the free outer end of one of a set of parallel supplementary supports 16, 16'. These supports 16, 16 at their other ends have pivotal mountings on a common transverse trunnion or shaft 17, and their upper surfaces, except when the high portions of cams 15, 15 are made effective, occupy a level slightly below the receiving level a of the skids 1, 1 and 2, 2. However, when the shaft 13 is operated in one direction or the other, to project the members 12, 12 above the level a so as to engage said members with the mass of billets deposited on said skids, the cams 15, 15 procure the elevation of the supplementary supports 16, 16 to a level slightly above the level a, thereby transferring the support of the mass of billets to said supplementary supports 16, 16, and at the same time rendering said mass incapable of being shifted broadside in either direction by any movement then being imparted to the skids 2, 2 by the rotation of shaft 7.

In the use of the apparatus, the shaft 7 is normally driven by its motor 8 in a clockwise direction, thus to actuate the skids 2, 2 for a step-by-step broadside movement ofthe material toward the discharge end of the apparatus. Assuming the deposit of a disordered bunch or mass of billets or the like at the receiving end of the apparatus as shown in Fig. 1, this broadside movement by the skids 2, 2 may be availed of, for example, to carry said mass along the level a to the position represented in Fig. 3, at which time the shaft 13, by its motor 1 1-, can be operated counterclockwise, to forcibly engage its alined members 12, 12 with the forward portion of the mass, whereby to square up the mass from end to end. This operation, as shown in Fig. 3, brings into play the supplementary supports 16, 16, so that the whole mass during this squaring up process is lifted clear of the skids 1, 1 and 2, 2; upon reversal of the motor 14, as shown in Fig. 4:, the mass is returned to its support on the skids 1, 1 and 2, 2, and the alined members 12, 12, by clockwise rotation, are brought into'forcible engagement with the mass from beneath;

The immediate effect of this engagement,

in the case of billets piled up, oneupon another to any considerable height, is a tendency to topple said pile, or at least, to spread out the mass to some extent on the supporting surface of the skids at the level a; this results from the fact that the members 12, 12 are forced up through a portion of the underlying pieces of the mass. One or more of these underlying pieces, as shown in Fig. 4, may, by the continuance of this clockwise rotation of members 12, 12, be extricated from the mass and pushed forward to a position of complete separation therefrom; under these conditions, the billet or billets so freed are pushed clear of the supplementary supports 16, 16 and, due to the fact that the ends of these supports are adjacent the downhill portions 10, 10 of the skids, such separate billets are free to roll by gravity down said portions 10, 10 onto the level 0, where they partake of the step-by-step broadside movement imparted by the normal action of shaft 7 on the skids 2, 2. y

The above described intermittent and opposite movements of the members 12, 12, un der the control of an operator in the pulpit 9, having full view of the condition and position of the mass of material on the level a,

are repeated until the mass is entirely disintegrated. Each countercIockwise operation of the members 12, 12 tends to restore the alinement, thereby correcting, in whole or in part, any misalinement produced by the previous clockwise movement of said members which may drag out and separate one or more pieces from the mass.

As the disintegration of the mass proceeds, under the action of the members 12, 12 as above described, the successively separated pieces, singly or in multiple, slide down the inclines 10 onto the level 0, and from the latter slide down the inclines 11 onto the discharge level 6, it being understood that under normal conditions, the shaft 7 continues to rotate in a cockwise direction, so that there is a gradual step-by-step progress of each separated piece toward the discharge end of the skids 1, 1 and 2, 2, However, if for any reason the orderly progress of the thus-separated pieces along the sucessive levels 0 and b is disturbed, as by one piece over-riding another, (see Fig. 5), or by one or more pieces becoming badly displaced from squared-up relation the trough 3 see Fig. 6), then the operator, by reversing the motor 8, can remedy these conditions; such reversal causes the movable skids 2, 2, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, to carry the offending pieces backwardly, against the inclines 10, 10 or 11, 11, as the case may be, and since such backward movement is not able to return said pieces to the preceding upper level (a or a), the effect on the pieces of being repeatedly brought against said portions 10, 10 or 11, 11 is to square them up on the skids and to eliminate any over-riding propensities; then, (see orderly progress toward the discharge end of the skids can be resumed. At said discharge end, the billets drop off one by one into the trough 3, and it will be understood that the clockwise rotation of shaft 7 can be interrupted, whenever desired, so as to permit removal of one billet from said trough before another billet from the skids 1, 1 and 2, 2 is deposited therein.

I claim:

1. In apparatus of the class described, a conveyor having a receiving portion whereon the pieces to be conveyed are deposited in multiple, one above the other in a disordered pile or mass, in combination with members operable in one direction to square up said mass transversely on said receiving portion, and operable in the other direction to extricate one or more individual pieces from said mass, and means for operating said conveyor to produce broadside step-by-step movements of the pieces so extricated.

2. In apparatus of the class described, a conveyor for the support and broadside movement of pieces deposited thereon in multiple, one above the other, in a disordered mass or pile, in combination with means operable adjacent the receiving end of said conveyor for unscrambling said mass or pile, and means brought into action by the operation of said unscrambling means for supporting said mass or pile, above the level of said conveyor.

3. In apparatus of the class described, a conveyor having a receiving portion whereon the pieces to be conveyed are deposited in multiple, one above the other in a disordered bunch or pile, in combination with means operable against the front of said pile to square it up transversely of said receiving portion, and operable against the under side of said pile to topple the same, thereby to extricate one or more ofthe pieces therefrom.

4. In apparatus of the class described, a conveyor for the support and broadside movement of pieces deposited thereon in mass formation, in combination with a set of alined rotatable fingers norm ally disposed below the receiving level of said conveyor, means for rotating said fingers in one direction to engage said mass at the front, whereby to square it up transversely on said conveyor, and means for rotating said fingers in the other direction to engage said mass from beneath, whereby to-topple the same and spread out the pieces on said conveyor.

5. In apparatus of the class described, a conveyor for the support and broadside movement of pieces deposited thereon in mass formation, in combination with a set of alined rotatable fingers normally disposed below the receiving level of said conveyor, means for rotating said fingers in one direction to engage said mass at the front, whereby to square it up transversely on said conveyor, means for rotating said fingers in the other direction to engage said mass from beneath, whereby to topple the same and spread out the pieces on said conveyor, and means for supporting said mass or pile, during each engagement therewith of said fingers, above the level of said conveyor.

6. In apparatus of the class described, a conveyor for the support and broadside movement of pieces deposited thereon in mass formation, in combination with a set of alined rotatable fingers normally disposed below the receiving level of said conveyor, means for rotating said fingers in one direction to engage said mass at the front, whereby to square it up transversely on said conveyor, means for rotating said fingers in the other direction to engage said mass from beneath, whereby to topple the same and spread out the pieces on said conveyor, and supplementary supporting means for said mass, brought into action by the movement of said fingers above the level of said conveyor, to interrupt the broadside movement of said mass during the engagement therewith of said fingers.

7. In apparatus of the class described, a conveyor for the support and broadside movement of material deposited thereon, the supporting surfaces of said conveyor from its receiving end to its discharge end being at successively lower levels with downhill shoulder portions connecting said levels, means for normally operating said conveyor to produce broadside step-by-step movement of said material toward the discharge end of said conveyor, and means for reversing the operation of said conveyor, whereby tosquare up material thereon by movement against said downhill shoulders.

8. Apparatus of the class described, comprising a conveyor having a receiving portion whereon the pieces to be conveyed are de posited in multiple, one above the other, in a disordered mass or pile, means for forcibly engaging said pile from beneath, to topple and disintegrate the same, and means for reversing said engaging means, to square up said pieces transversely on said receiving portion.

9. The combination, with supporting means for receiving a disordered mass of billets piled up in practically non-parallel relation, of power-driven members engageable with said mass or pile from beneath to topple and partially separate the same, and means for advancing in parallel relation on said supporting means the billets so separated from said mass or pile.

10. The combination with supporting means for a mass or pile of billets, of means for advancing said mass or pile on said supporting means, a set or" power-driven members engageable with said mass or pile from beneath, to topple and partially separate the same, and means brought into action by the operation of said members to render said advancing means inoperative on said mass or pile.

EDWARD J. QUINN. 

